Reviving Ambulance Corps

November 29, 1985|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

I would like to comment on the article that appeared in the Nov. 24 Sunday Morning Call concerning the possible revival of the Whitehall Emergency Squad (WES). After reading the article, I was left with the impression that the only people who were in favor of a WES return were the squad members. Several issues were addressed, including how A.J. Heightman felt, and how Township Executive Michael Harakal felt, and how HMS director Chuck Bauer felt about the ambulance service in Whitehall. The subject avoided was the most important one: How do the residents of WhitehallTownship feel, and what do they want? It is not enough to say that an ambulance rolls out the door every time the siren goes off; one must also consider how long it takes for that ambulance to get to the emergency, because "minutes do matter." One must also consider the quality of care that the ambulance personnel will be providing. For example, if you are hurt, your neighbor can plop you into his car and drive you to the hospital and then can say, "Yes, I responded and provided care." But what about the quality of that care?

Many issues were simply avoided in this article, because to tell the whole story would open up a political Pandora's box in Whitehall Township. Whitehall Emergency Squad personnel have been in contact with, and have been contacted by, many residents, also some township employees, since ending ambulance service last September. We are under the impression people desire our services again, and it is up to the people to help us make our decision one way or the other. We desire to provide the quality care that we have prided ourselves on in the past, but we need to know that the residents want to have that care.

The inception of the Medic 3 paramedic unit required a large number of our members (the paramedics) to serve on that vehicle in order to maintain their paramedic status. That, unfortunately, presented a severe staffing problem for WES. The other two corps (HMS and Catasauqua) involved with Medic 3 were not so severely affected, because they had no paramedic members. While serving on the Medic 3 unit, many WES members have seen the level of basic life support care being provided since our own ambulance service terminated.

We maintain that getting an ambulance out the door does not necessarily mean that this ambulance is providing adequate prehospital care. For this reason, for the people of Whitehall, and not for any townshipofficials, we want to come back to provide, once again and to the best of our ability, the best prehospital care in the county.